Hasselblad X1D - first impressions

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CI-Founder

I find the Hasselblad X1D really an interesting camera. It is for sure a "game changer" for Hasselblad. Whether it is a game changer for the rest of us we have to see.

What I like is that Hasselblad returns to its roots. For both, their target audience and for product development and production.

Because of the significant lower price tag compared to the products of the last 10 years, Hasselblad becomes again attractive for non-professionals, who just want to have the excellent image quality of larger sensors and the Hasselblad build quality.

With the Hasselblad X1D we are back to the time, when also "normal human beeings" could afford a Hasselblad medium format camera like a 500CM etc. With the Hasselbald X1D-System we are back in the price range and attractiveness of the V-System. Finally....

This is great! This what we all wanted to have!

I will be next week on Friday at Hasselblad Germany to meet some people there (also Perry Oosting / Hasselblad CEO) and to try out a pre-production model of the Hasselblad X1D.

I will report here about that later on.

In the meantime, let us use this thread to collect as much information as possible and to get an impression about your view on the X1D and this change from Hasselblad to this new direction.

Please pay attention of a really smart move: Flash control is a Nikon hotshoe! How cool is that?

Here are images from the presentation with top, back and side view of the X1D:

Another thing that is intriguing me is the small and lightweight body. Hasselbald showed in their presentation last week comparison images of the X1D vs. other bodies. They did not mention the names, but we can guess here pretty easy

CI-Founder

Hasselblad stated clearly, that the development, product design and production of the X1D is done by Hasselblad. There is no involvement of Fuji into this new line. Same for the new lenses of this new XD-System.

And now a collection of some interesting videos (the live stream video of last week is in the other thread):

Member

I spent a good 15 minutes playing with it at my local Hong Kong launch event last week, with both 45mm and 90mm lenses. Wasn't allowed to insert my SD card to take any files away as the firmware isn't finalised yet. 1st impressions: feels VERY well made like a solid brick - reminds me of the robustness of the V series. Very refined and grippy rubberised grip. Lenses seem sharp (was told that they are generally sharper than the HC and HCD lenses based on the fact that those are approaching 15 years old). I have been shooting with the H6D-50c for the past month, and since both of these cameras share the same display (among other things), corner sharpness appear very good on camera. 45mm AF focuses faster than the 90mm. Overall, very easy to use. EVF is decent but not amazing. EVF delay is about 1/2 to 3/4 second blackout in between shots. Saw the H-adapter - it's big - kind of renders the whole idea useless if one's goal is to keep things small and compact.

Active Member

I am not so much enthusiastic about this clever made new X1D! A vehicle, is only as good, as his service shop! Since there is no service point anymore, at least here in Germany, every needs for service, must be forwarded to Goeteborg/Sweden! Sorry, but this is an absolutely NO GO for me!

Furthermore, the camera with its cheap electronical parts, with its 50MP Sony sensor, is quiet too expensive, incl. its unknown quality glasses!

I guess, we should wait and see, what will be launched at the Photokina in September! I have the feelings, that the X1D may get some competitions from other vital and stronger camera manufacturers! My 2 Cents!

CI-Founder

there will be for sure more competition coming. The more the better for us

I was not aware of this service-shop problem. I can raise that question in my meeting next week if you want to. All users can post here questions what you would like to ask and I can try and bundle those question to discuss them with Hasselblad next week.

Good to know that some of us already had a chance to try out a preproduction model. I think it is understandable, that the X1D plus adapter plus old lenses is onyl a compromise for those, who need to use a specific lens range which is not yet avalaible in the new XD-System. The more time goes by, the more lens choice there will be in native X1D mount. Look how fast Fuji did that with their X-system. I have no doubt, that Hasselbald will try the same.

In one of linked interviews Hasselbald said that they do no lens-corrections inside of the body. Lens corrections can only be made in Phocus on the PC. I am not sure whether I like that. There are situations, when there is no time for postprocessing. We will see...

Active Member

The Nimbus of Hasselblad was effected first of all, by the excellent lenses from Carl Zeiss at Oberkochen, and not by the simple square box type camera body! Some of those lenses and camera bodies are still remain on the moon! With not an single word at the X1D launching party, this former partnership was mentioned at all! Shame on you, Hasselblad!

CI-Founder

what do you expect from them? It is nowadays a hard time in the photoindustry. Of course they do not mention things, which do not help them for the future to gain market share. The Zeiss cooperation during the V-System was great. But nowadays there is no cooperation with Zeiss as far as I know.

So why shall they do marketing for a brand, they do not cooperate anymore? They neither mentioned Fuji and with Fuji they still cooperate (at least with the lenses. The H6D is also made by Hasselblad themselves).

I could imagine that Zeiss would have liked to do the lenses for the X1D. But this woud make the system obviously more expensive, because Hasselblad then has to pay Zeiss for the development PLUS the fee for the trademark. Would you be willing to pay twice the price or even more for the X1D lenses to have the Zeiss badget on it? Look at the Otus prices...

Maybe if the lenses are not good at all from Hasselbald. But that we will find out very fast....

Active Member

There are a lot of photographers out there, who are still using their good old Zeiss glasses! I am pretty sure, that the X1D sees pretty soon an manual adapter, to adapt these glasses on this new camera body! But I do not believe, that Zeiss will be much interested to make lenses for Hasselblad anymore! This time is over!

Maybe, we will see another MF camera soon with new MF Zeiss glasses, who knows! Contax would be an nice name for it!

CI-Founder

a manual adapter should be no problem at all. Probably in a few months for 20 USD on ebay from HongKong. The third party industry was always fast with adapters for mirrorless systems. Sony A7, Fuji X, Olympus to name a few. But the downside is always the size. Old lenses plus adapters on a small and thin body like the Hasselbald X1D might not be the best balanced handling. But of course if you have specific lenses you want to use, especiall for manual focus, there should be no problem.

Yes, this would be nice. As an old Contaxian, I would love to see that. But I do not have high hopes for this. Who would manufacture the lenses for it and the bodies? In the old Contax time, Kyocera designed and made the bodies and manufactured the lenses. Lenses were designed by Zeiss and quality control of the lenses was with Zeiss in the plants of Kyocera. I do not see at the moment any manufacturer, who has the same knowledge and capability in manufacturing this like Kyocera did. All this then at a competitive price and with large enough volumes. Difficult...

Active Member

You should say never NO, there is enough industrial capacity from other specialized companies, incl. Cosina and Sony and others, who are able to support such an project! The major problem is, that the big boss and CEO at Oberkochen must agree to it. The good historical name sits there in the drawer unused! I am an old Contaxian too, shooting with an RTSIII, AX and Contax 645 AF for many years! After the Photokina is before the Photokina, and I have still the wishful thinking, that the name Contax has not died, like Rollei at Braunschweig!

CI-Founder

Cosina will not be able to manufactur something this complex with AF etc. Sony is certainly able to do it. But my experience with Sony is, that they waste their time internally with discussions about whether lenses shall be labeled Sony or Zeiss.

The very first forum I opened was Contaxinfo.com and all other forums jsut came after that. See here:

So I am definitely interested in a future of the name Contax (which is a brandmark of Zeiss, so they could use it). But my experience iwith the photoindustry since 2002 makes me very sceptical that this will happen.

Well-Known Member

In my opinion, the biggest departure from its roots Hasselblad made by parting with German optics. It is not the camera that makes pictures, lenses do. It is hard to fathom that this simple notion eludes one of formerly the most prominent camera manufacturers in the world.
To reiterate, there is no real innovation in what Hasselblad did with X1D, as mirrorless cameras are out there for a few years now. Moreover, Hasselblad had one in the past, it was called SWC: a mirrorless camera with a built-in Zeiss Biogon 4.5/38mm lens. So, the only new thing about this one is that the lenses are made in obscurity by someone who clearly does not have as much legacy of making top quality optics as Zeiss, or Schneider.

CI-Founder

Of course the lenses are a big question mark. But we should be fair. The gap between Zeiss lenses and top notch other high end lenses (i.e. Sigma Art) is not that big as it used to be in the old analogue times. And software helps also to closen the gap even further.

I do not say that there is no difference even nowadays. We can see that with the Zeiss Otus lens line. But the question everybody has to ask himself is, whether you are willing to pay the significant premium for that. The price difference Zeiss vs. others was not that big in the old analogue days, as it is now and the image quality difference narrowed down

Let's be honest. There is at the moment no alternative out there with modern Zeiss lenses (in medium format, not 35mm). So we will never know the difference with the newest design.

But I am sure we will all look carefully at the first images with a production camera and lens. Especially the handling of lens flare will be interesting...

Member

Proove is that this camera was present in a bar in goteborg, and that the shape and experience is for the time more important than the picture.
Strangely enough we see tens of international review on the X1d even if nobody try and analyse the result image....

I had plenty of hassy, from my first 1600 at 16 year old to different 500/501, and I really love the body , the quality and the experienced....
so the new shape speak to me, and it was done by purpose.

The result is not so far from perfect, with minimum button and nice grip.

I hope that the build quality will be above average.... build in swesen could be from non quality b&o to high quality volvo.
We will see what quality control Hasselblad put into it....as moste of the guys working on the 500 are not here anymore.

The IQ is similar to the HD....verry good....we could dream for good RAW, lets hope.

An other hope is a reactive EVF, even if we know that the quality will not be comparable to the SL OF LEICA....what is important is reactivity.

I personaly just need one autofocus point ( I use leica M....) and easy manual apperture modes ....

I will test this X1D ( what a crapy japanese name !) to be my second body near my new Leica MD .

We all need whide lens....hope it will be announce at photokina.

An other remark PLEASE PLEASE HASSELBLAD, BRING A SQUARE OR AT LEAST A rectangular SUN VISOR ....
it was the signature of the 500.... please make it square !

Well-Known Member

I think the jury must be out until we all see how good the Nitto lenses are. I am surprised neither Zeiss nor Fuji are involved this time, given their know abilities. My second point is that Hasselblad would need to offer zoom lenses to get conquest sales from other than Hasselblad fans. They seem to have their ducks a long way from in a row on this. One day it is "no zoom lenses are possible"; two days later "of course we will be bringing out zoom lenses." Any zoom lens would need to be a lot lighter than their H50-110, which is a monster. If they could bring out say a 35 to 75 f3.5 to 5.6, no bigger than the 24-90 Leica SL lens, that could make an excellent landscape zoom.

New Member

First of all - brilliant concept, like the Leica SL should have been with a medium format sensor. Second - brilliant to focus on smaller/lighter primes at the beginning. Again the better choice compared to the Leica SL looking for a similar audience.

So far I do not understand the complaining about the new lenses - no Zeiss, no Fufi and so on. Their "new" supplier already made the lenses for the XPan, is very well known in the industrial world for optics and last but not least the first MTF's indicate a level close to the Rodenstock lenses e.g. for the ALPA - top notch! Add the Autofocus and light metering and chances are good to get an ALPA usable for street photography - unbelievable.

But their is one open wish - please make a Monochrom as well - that would be fantastic looking at the potential of the Phase Achromatic and the Leica Monochrom...

Well-Known Member

I think they have done the right thing. They are a distant second in the MF DSLR world. Best thing to do is to re-invent the game with mirrorless.

Going with no shutter in-body will prove to be a brilliant move, as leaf shutter will work for now, but eventually global shutter in the sensor will eliminate the need for mechanical shutter altogether.

I'd actually like a Canon EF converter for this thing--I'd like to try shooting, say, Otus or other high quality glass on this sensor 33mm square. (The converter would need a shutter, of course).

In any case, as a platform, the X platform looks to be a good one. Let's hope they get the lenses right and released in a timely manner.
-Brad